Industrious Expands in Downtown Austin

Coworking firm Industrious is doubling its footprint at a downtown office tower as Austin’s central business district stares down an uncertain future.

The company will take the 16th floor at 5th and Colorado streets, adding 19,000 square feet to its space in the building. It already operates a space on the 11th floor, which has been at or above 90 percent occupied since October 2021.

When the new space opens in September, Industrious will operate 38,100 square feet at the office, located at 201 West 5th Street. In total, the building spans 179,350 square feet across nine floors. Intercontinental Real Estate owns the property, which was built in 2016.

“The opportunity to expand presented itself and it quickly became clear that it was important to do so in this bustling business district,” said Peri Demestihas, a real estate executive for Industrious. The company operates about 200 workspaces in 65 cities, and has expanded rapidly as competitor WeWork has undergone a contentious bankruptcy.

Dallas-based CBRE is a significant investor in Industrious, putting at least $330 million into the company in the early years of the pandemic. The coworking firm’s push isn’t limited to Texas. It recently signed leases in California, in Westwood, Santa Monica and Century City.

After leading the return-to-office push, Austin employers have softened somewhat to remote work. Some 25 percent of job listings in Austin offer remote or hybrid work, up 10 percent year over year, according to recruitment platform Robert Half.

Most office leases signed in Austin last quarter were for smaller footprints, but Cisco signed a 27,380-square-foot lease at the Horizon Bank Building, according to JLL. Still, the vacancy rate stands at 23.1 percent, its highest rate in at least six years.

When taking sublease space into account, the central business district’s vacancy rate is nearly 30 percent, according to Avison Young. The district also has the highest asking rates, at $66.17 per square foot.